Name that tune: Contestants battle Shazam app in upcoming TV show

Fox Television plans to develop an interactive TV game show based on the music discovery app called "Beat Shazam."

Shazam

What's the longest amount of time you've spent looking for a song you heard in the wild? No joke, I heard a track at a party once and it took me almost a decade humming the harmony to record store clerks to identify it.

Of course, that could've been a 10-second inquiry if Shazam had been around back then, which is why the app has racked up more than 25 billion queries since it was founded in 1999.

Now, 17 years after the app's inception, Fox Television announced this week that it will develop an interactive TV game show based on the music discovery app called "Beat Shazam."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Beat Shazam" is an updated version of "Name That Tune" that challenges contestants to identify artists and song titles based on short snippets of music. The winners then go on to compete against the app itself for the grand prize.

Eight-time Emmy Award winner Mark Burnett will be executive producer along with Jeff Apploff, who also produced the popular Fox musical game show "Don't Forget the Lyrics."

Fox has yet to announce a premiere date for the show, but THR notes Shazam Entertainment Limited is a partner on the series.

For my own belated satisfaction, the song that that escaped my ears for so long is called "Nomalizo" by the South African singer Letta Mbulu. Her "holy grail" record was recently reissued by Be With Records.